This invention generally relates to article support structures or testles, and more particularly to sawhorse kits and methods of packaging thereof.
With the rising costs of housing, more and more emphasis is being placed on home improvement as a means of raising a person's standard of living rather than on purchasing bigger or better housing, which for a large segment of the consuming public has become highly impractical if not impossible. This emphasis on home improvement has resulted in a significant proportion of the general population becoming involved in various kinds of do-it-yourself home improvement projects requiring not only the various tools of the construction trade, such as saws, drills, sanders and the like, but also the need for inexpensive sawhorse-type article support structures.
In the past, the general population has been faced with building a sawhorse-type structure from raw materials such as wood, which can be a highly time consuming process for an unskilled worker, or purchasing a preassembled sawhorse or sawhorse kit. Of the sawhorse kits which have previously been available, many require cutting of components prior to assembly or have been difficult to assemble. For example, bracket devices generally available on the market have required the worker to cut legs and an article support surface prior to assemblage and retention of these components in a predetermined configuration by means of the brackets. Many of the preassembled sawhorse-type article support structures which have previously been available have been weak in design, highly costly, heavy, and/or difficult to transport and store. Examples of various sawhorse-type article support structures of the prior art are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 652,517; 758,130; 841,931, 906,076, 1,257,033, 1,442,353, 1,960,991, 2,197,187, 2,343,557, 2,634,172, 3,080,015, 3,103,988, 3,721,316, 3,848,700, 4,071,113, 4,122,918 and 4,182,432.
In order to avoid some of the foregoing problems, a sawhorse kit has previously been suggested in U.S. Pat. No. 3,760,903 of Thompson having an elongated article support member defining four beveled surfaces, four leg members and gussets defining leg receiving channels along the entire length of the gusset sides. It appears, however, that the sawhorse structure disclosed in the Thompson patent may be inherently structurally weak in its design. For example, the beveled surfaces of the Thompson sawhorse are placed at the ends of the article support member and thereby provide stabilizing support for the legs in only two directions. These surfaces are inclined in one direction only with respect to the article support member and therefore do not maximize stability of the assembled sawhorse. Since loading of the sawhorse tends to force the legs to spread away from the article support member, the gusset channels of the Thompson sawhorse would appear to be incapable of aiding the strength of the sawhorse structure and would appear to actually weaken its structural integrity by reducing material thickness. In addition, assembly of the sawhorse kit of the Thompson patent requires a separate measuring step and the use of worker discretion as to placement of fasteners, shown in the Thompson patent as nails.
It has now been found that a long lasting sawhorse having high structural integrity and being capable of supporting heavy loads can be quickly and easily assembled from a kit comprising a top piece having channels formed therein a sufficient distance from the ends of the top piece to provide a work space on the top piece longitudinally outward from the channels, leg members adapted to be received and seated in the channels, brace members and fastener members. When received and seated in the channels, the leg members extend downwardly and outwardly from a plane including the longitudinal axis of the top piece, and downwardly and outwardly from a plane transverse to the longitudinal axis of the top piece and bisecting the top piece. Passages, adapted to receive and securely retain the fastener members, are provided in the top piece, leg members and brace members to facilitate assembly of the sawhorse kit. The components are adapted to be arranged for packaging for transportation, display and/or storage by orienting the kit components in a five layer, vertically stacked relationship, having a generally right angled, hexahedronal peripheral configuration, with two of the layers having a leg member and a brace member arranged in end to end relationship, two of the layers containing leg members, and one layer containing the top piece. In a presently particularly preferred embodiment, the stacked kit components are then contained in a packaging structure having a length about the same as, or slightly longer than, the longitudinal length of the top piece, a width about the same as, or slightly wider than the height of a brace member, and a height about the same height as, or slightly higher than, the stack height of the kit components.